A couple of unusual solutions had been proposed to take care of getting rid of the estimated 4,000 goldfish that had proliferated in 12-acre Teller lake No. 5 in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month.
As Digital Journal reported on April 7, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said that to maintain the ecological integrity of the lake, they would have to decide on the best method of removing the goldfish. Apparently, someone had become tired of their pet fish and rather than dump them down the toilet bowl, had turned them loose in the lake. The fish had taken to their new surroundings and their numbers quickly grew.
When wildlife officials visited Teller Lake this week with trap nets to make another fish survey, they couldn’t believe what they found, or more to the point, they couldn’t believe what they didn’t find. There were only a few goldfish to be seen, reported the Daily Camera.
The trap nets brought up 26 green sunfish, two largemouth bass, 10 painted turtles and 18 tiger salamanders, but no goldfish. Three or four of the bright orange fish were seen in the shallows, but while officials watched, a pelican swooped down for a mouthful of the few stray goldfish.
The big bird was an American white pelican. It’s summer range encompasses most of the American west and the Rocky Mountain states. With a wing-span of up to 108-inches and a length of up to 50 to 70-inches, it is the longest bird in the U.S. Able to eat more than four pounds of food a day, it is no wonder the lake was cleaned of goldfish.
Jennifer Churchill, a spokeswoman for CPW exclaimed, “Isn’t it fantastic?” It appears that nature has taken care of an unnatural problem very effectively. Luckily, Colorado is in a summer range that includes the American West for pelicans, and the pelicans feasted on the goldfish. “It has totally happened naturally,” said Churchill.
At least the CPW didn’t have to resort to shocking the fish with an electrical current or even worse, draining the lake. “I imagine they (the pelicans) have good eyes and saw those fish from above,” Churchill said of the big birds. “We haven’t ever really experienced this before, so this might be a nice environmentally sound solution for such situations in the future.”
